In Thursday’s (10/31) New York Times, Robin Pogrebin writes that Sanford Weill, Carnegie Hall’s chairman, is “putting up the money to hire Zarin Mehta, the former president of the New York Philharmonic” as the new executive director of the Green Music Center, which opened in 2011 at California’s Sonoma State University and is home to the Santa Rosa Symphony, as well as hosting visiting orchestras and ensembles. “Mr. Mehta will take on the title of executive director, which he will share with Larry Furukawa-Schlereth, the university’s chief financial officer.” Sanford Weill and his wife, Joan, “will pay 80 percent of Mr. Mehta’s $300,000 annual salary to the university, which will cover the rest…. In its first season, the 1,400-seat hall was the site of 32 concerts…. The center’s Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall … was designed by William Rawn and was modeled after Mr. Rawn’s Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, with a back wall that can open onto the landscaped Weill Lawn…. ‘I will be there as long as it takes to make this thing a huge success,’ said Mr. Mehta in an interview…. His portfolio at the center will include artistic issues, sales, marketing and development.” Prior to the New York Philharmonic, Mehta was managing director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and president and CEO of the Ravinia Festival, outside Chicago.
Posted October 31, 2013
